On a bicycle or a motorcycle, and even on many other devices such as garden equipment and outboard motors, an actuator is provided at one end of a bowden cable for operating mechanism at the other end of the cable. To this end the cable has a flexible but longitudinally incompressible and inextensible sheath surrounding a core that is similarly flexible but longitudinally inextensible and incompressible. The ends of the sheath are anchored at the actuator and at the device being actuated and the ends of the core are connected to a lever at the actuator and the portion of the device to be displaced. Thus it is possible for the actuator to move considerably relative to the device being actuated while at the same time accurate transmission of force from the actuator to the device is possible. This type of arrangement is most commonly used on the brakes of bicycles and motorcycles, on the clutch of a motorcycle, and for operating the throttles of gasoline engines in garden equipment and outboard motors. All such uses are within the scope of the instant invention.
In the standard arrangement the support is formed with a guide for the cable core and an abutment for the end of the sheath of the cable. The core end itself is received in a holding formation or seat of an actuating lever having an elongated handle and a foot projecting laterally from this handle. The support is formed with a recess in which the foot is engaged, and a pivot pin normally passes through the support at this recess and through a hole in the foot, so that the entire actuating lever can pivot relative to the support about this pin. The pin itself is normally formed by the stem between the head and threaded end of a bolt. The support itself is secured to a part such as a cycle hand grip.
The disadvantage of this system is that it has several different parts and is, therefore, somewhat complicated to assemble and relatively failure-prone. Such devices are normally exposed to considerable vibration, so that loosening of them is a problem. Any motorcyclist with some experience has at least once had to deal with the problem of the pivot pin falling out.
It has been suggested in French Pat. No. 1,077,461 to form this pin integrally with the lever. In order to seat it in the support, this support is made of two separate parts that are bolted together on opposite sides of the lever. Although this arrangement does somewhat reduce the complexity of this system, it requires the support to be assembled in a complicated manner. In addition it still leaves the possibility that the assembly can work itself loose so that the lever can separate from the support without warning, that is while the support still remains firmly attached to the part carrying it.